Introduction
The film The World Before Her was produced by Pahuja in 2012 as an attempt to show two drastically different paths of young girls in India. While the movie shows many young women, the two main characters are Ruhi Singh and Prachi Trivedi. The first girl, Ruhi, goes to a boot camp to prepare for a beauty pageant to win the title of Miss India. The second protagonist, Prachi, also participates in a training camp as a teacher. However, its purpose is very different – it is a part of the Hindu nationalist movement that teaches young girls the ways of Durga Vahini (Pahuja).
The World Before Her: Discussion
The film’s purpose is to represent the opposite views and influences of cultures that have impacted India through the years. The first one is the Western culture, which came into the country with the colonization and firmly established itself as a source of imitation for many generations. A beauty pageant is a perfect example of people trying to follow a constructed ideal to fit in and prove one’s worth. The second is the radical Hindu movement based on the belief that other religions such as Islam and Christianity are inferior to Hindus. These two influences clash and contrast each other with their values and priorities. However, the film takes a closer look at the camps’ details, revealing some unsettling similarities. Pahuja shows that both movements turn women into objects by putting them into confined roles of beauty queens and moral value defenders. The two groups of girls search for their identities to find freedom, and the movie reveals the patriarchal foundation of both ideologies.
This documentary portrays a part of the culture that surrounds modern Indian women. While it may not show all experiences that Hindu girls go through, it succeeds in showing the main problems of the Indian conflict between tradition and modernization. Pahuja devotes a significant part of the movie to explain the conflict of values that separate one group of people from another. Both pageant participants and radical activists want to create a distinct identity for themselves, demanding to take a spot in India’s history (Mehta 140). Many of the social problems described in the film correspond with the development of gender roles in India (Thakur 68). The depiction of violence in the movie shows how the nation’s separation of movements affects emancipated women. Gender roles and expectations placed on women are realistically portrayed in the film through the interview with Prachi’s father, who proudly says that he beats her daughter so she would listen to him.
The contradiction of freedom and objectification also exists in both ideologies. Prachi sees herself as a warrior, a tough person who would harm others for her nation. However, her teachers and her father do not account for her desires, reducing her to the role of a wife and a mother. At one point, Prachi’s father says that she is the product, and “the product has to be perfect in every sense” (Pahuja). Her role as the mother is expected of her, regardless of her ambition. She has to agree with him as she follows a movement with strong traditional values. However, she contributes to the development of gender roles by choosing to participate in the camp as a teacher and voicing her desire to have a career in the group. This camp submits an interesting contribution to the place that modern women have in India. Although it teaches girls about traditional values, it also allows them to be active and independent.
On the other hand, Ruhi’s teachers care about her appearance and her ability to showcase herself, while she is anxious about winning the contest. In one scene, the pageant director makes girls put pieces of white cloth over their heads and bodies, leaving only legs exposed. Such a vivid example of objectification also shows that women are treated as accessories more than individuals. This experience does not showcase beauty pageants as places for girls to raise their self-worth. Nevertheless, their freedom to participate and explore their attractiveness can be viewed as a positive contribution to the development of more equal roles between genders. The pageant producer says that they “have two Indias,” implying that women still do not have enough freedom to live fully, although the country goes through modernization similarly to other nations (Pahuja). Both groups contribute to the way girls are viewed in the country. Interestingly, they offer different values in both camps, while teaching women to be self-sufficient and assertive.
Conclusion
While it is hard to connect to the girls’ experiences as they have very different lives, I would say that I can relate to Prachi in some aspects. She struggles with trying to create a path for herself while living in the system that past generations build around her. Moreover, she possesses personality traits that are not expected of her by her parents. She is assertive and strong-willed, getting angry at her father for trying to control her life. Nevertheless, she honors her past and believes in the future. Such a contradiction is not exclusive to one culture, as globalization affects all nations and affects all value systems. Thus, her internal conflict between her obvious potential and her limited ability can be understood.
Works Cited
Mehta, Akanksha. “The World Before Her: A Review.” Feminist Dissent, vol. 1, 2016, pp. 139-143.
Pahuja, Nisha, director. The World Before Her. Storyline Entertainment, 2012.
Thakur, Pallavi. “Status of Hindu Women in Modern India.” International Journal of Engineering Technology, Science and Research (IJETSR), vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 66-70.